Three Great Quilt Designs From a Simple 4-Patch Block

A 4-patch block—a simple,  yet elegant patchwork design—has such potential! Start with the basics, then make a few simple modifications, to change what was traditional into modern! Presto,  you’re a quilt designer, creating one-of-a-kind designs. Welcome to Sewing With Nancy’s first episode of the 3-part series, Change-Up Patchwork.

A 3-color 4-patch serves as the basis for this blog and corresponding TV show.

Can-Do 4-Patch Quilt

Begin your change-up patchwork journey with a traditional 4-patch. Mix up the line-up using three different sizes of 4-patches for 4″, 8″, and 16″ finished quilt blocks. The various sizes of 4-patch blocks are cleverly combined with solid blocks to create a modern small–to-large block theme. It’s a can-do quilt!

Learn how to create rows of 4-patch blocks and squares. The different sizes of the 4-patch blocks nest together!

Lay out the quilt rows and watch the Can-Do 4-patch Quilt take shape. (We laid out the rows on our studio floor. Can you spot some of our “spike” marks that we use for lighting?)

Spinning 4-Patch

The beauty of this quilt is its simplicity! Tweak the sizes of the 4-patch strips and the patchwork design gives the illusion of movement when four blocks are combined. Use bold, bright batik fabrics or your fabric print/solid combination. Remember, you’re the quilt designer.

TV show and book detail how to change the sizes of the strips. Featured is a 4-patch design, an uneven 4-patch. The block by itself doesn’t look like much

 . . .but arrange four of the same blocks together—presto, a Spinning 4-Patch!

High-Low 4-Patch
A block that is usually symmetrical takes on a totally different feel when what was balanced becomes uneven. Don’t change the sewing steps, only the strip sizes. Can you see the strata sections? Watch the show online and you’ll get all the details!

It’s an ideal block for a table runner.

Watch Change-Up Patchwork  on Sewing With Nancy online.

To watch Sewing With Nancy on your iPad, iPod Touch, or iPhone, download the app. 

Book Features Nine Great Quilts

Find these easy 4-patch quilts, and six additional quilts, in the new Change-Up Patchwork Book and DVD or in the Change-Up Patchwork Starter Set. 

Nancy’s Notions is giving away one copy of the new book, Change-Up Patchwork. Leave a comment below to enter the giveaway, telling us which of these designs you’d like to make.

Thanks for leaving comments regarding the last two week’s blogs titled, Cabin Fever Quilts, Amazingly Easy Quilt Designs. and Cabin Fever Quilts—20 Modern Log Cabin Quilts. The random winner of the book, Cabin Fever Quilts is Susan K. She shared: I like the stretched log cabin block as something unusual and with a modern twist. I also like the downtown cabins quilt for its bold look—I could see it in almost any fabric style from traditional, to batik, to modern. Lovely quilts!

Bye for now,

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